Editor’s note: This is the fourth of many scheduled Lectionary Living columns to be written by clergy in the Diocese of Central Florida.

Lectionary Reflection for the Third Sunday after Pentecost (Year B, Track 1)

“Appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” – I Samuel 8:5

Israel’s sin was not that they wanted a king. Kingship wasn’t forbidden. On the contrary, it was and is an integral part of God’s redemptive plan. Besides, Israel had already had a sort of de facto monarch in Moses. And, in the book of Judges, it is the absence of a king which is presented as a recipe for disorder and chaos – “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).

Israel’s sin was that they wanted a king like the other nations. God called Abraham, and therefore Israel, to be the means by which He would rescue the earth – “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 22:18). [This, of course, is ultimately fulfilled in Christ and the Church, Christ being the eschatological Seed and the Church being the renewed Israel]. Israel was to be different than the other nations, that is, set apart – holy!  They were to be a light to lighten the world, not join the world in darkness by adopting its polity and cultus.

Their desire for a king like the other nations was a rejection of their God-given identity and vocation. And that’s why it was tantamount to a rejection of God, Himself. Heartbreakingly, as God explains to Samuel, this had been their modus operandi from the beginning: “According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you” (I Samuel 8:8). Fittingly, in the Collect of the Day we petition God for the grace to be the opposite – to think and do and be what we ought, to take up our vocation as image bearers so that the wise rule of the King of Kings may come on earth as in heaven.

It’s easier just to fit in and go with the flow because when you join the psalmist in worshipping the Lord with your whole heart, when you sing His praises “before the gods” (Psalm 138:1), the gods push back. And when you seek to live as a faithful citizen of the kingdom of Heaven, the kingdoms of this world will not be hospitable.  They said of Jesus that he had “gone out of his mind” (Mark 3:21) and that he was in league with Satan. There was tension even with Jesus’ own family. They sought for a season to “restrain” him, to have him tone it down.

It wasn’t easy for Jesus. And if we follow him, it won’t be easy for us. This is the explicit teaching of our Lord: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you … Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18ff). But as Jesus went through suffering to glory, so shall we if we persevere: “For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

The comforts of this age are attractive. And what’s even more attractive is being accepted and lauded in this age. It can be difficult to live in the light of the reality that as Christians we are dead to this world, that we do not belong to this age but to the age to come. But it is the hope of the age to come – the resurrection – which anchors and energizes us in this present age so that “we do not lose heart”

(2 Corinthians 4:16).

The primal lie of Satan is that God is holding out, and that following Him means missing out on the fullness of life (See Genesis 3). That ancient lie is whispered into the hearts of Israel’s elders. They look around and believe that those without Yahweh have it better. They wanted to be like the world instead being its light.

God reissues to the Church that ancient call: “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). To be holy is to be different, to be salt and light in this world, to be image bearers and kingdom bringers. It means a different way of life – God’s way. And God’s way isn’t always easy. In fact, it rarely is. But it is the best way, the way which leads to life – abundant life in Jesus Christ.

– Father Matthew Ainsley is assistant to the rector at Church of the Ascension in Orlando.